Pakistan fires again at Indian positions

Pakistani troops again fired at Indian positions along the Jammu and Kashmir border, sparking off retaliatory firing by the Indian Army, officials here said on Sunday.

The firing in Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch district began at 10 p.m. Saturday and continued an hour past midnight, an official told IANS.

The military said the Pakistani firing was a violation of the ceasefire effective on the Line of Control (LoC) since 2003 and that the Indian Army offered a “calibrated response to silence Pakistani guns”.

“Pakistani troops used medium and heavy machine gun fire. There was no loss of life or injury on the Indian side,” a source said.

This was said to be the seventh ceasefire violation since Jan 8 when Pakistani troops intruded into Indian territory and killed and beheaded two Indian soldiers.

Since then, tensions have soared along the LoC, which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Army officials said Pakistan, which has called for a UN probe into the incidents on LoC, had not responded to an Indian request for a “flag meeting” between the two armies.

Trade between the Indian and Pakistani Kashmir, which takes place four days a week (Tuesday to Friday), has halted since Jan 9 when Pakistani authorities did not open the border gates on the LoC.

An official in the Poonch district administration told IANS that the visas of over 30 people who have come to Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan to meet their relatives would expire Monday.

“We will have to work on getting their visa extended,” he said.

The cross-LoC bus travel and trade takes place at Chakan da Bagh in Poonch district of Jammu region and at Salamabad in the Kashmir Valley.

Hardly has the dust settled over the recent skirmish which resulted in deaths on either side of the border with a mutilation charge against the other side and the okay been given to the Flag
Meeting" (which in my view is more a shroud meeting) by the other side and a date fixed,than we are confronted by another incident.In
Such a scenario,one wonders what exactly is expected to be achieved at the meeting to ensue.These exercises have become more of a routine and absolutely meaningless given the belligerent attitude of our neighbor.